Color-changing lights and lighting effects have become very popular in swimming pools and spas. For installations that use multiple color-changing lights, the user typically prefers that colors of the separate lights change in color synchronization. If the color changing of the separate lights is done in a particular sequence, it can be made to appear that the light color is “moving” from one end of the pool to the other. Users also often desire to stop the separate lights on different colors to create a color combination to achieve a unique effect or to define a holiday, e.g., red and green for Christmas, red, white and blue for the Fourth of July, etc.
For some color changing lights, color control can be achieved by manually interrupting power to the light's internal microprocessor which activates the color changing mechanism. If the user wants individual control of multiple lights for basic illumination or for color lighting effects, this could require separate, manually activated switches, complicating the design and control. If all lights are desired to be color synchronized, this might require all of the manual switches to be operated simultaneously, which is difficult at best.
Another option is to utilize a complex, costly, manually operated combination of manual switches that could allow for a single toggle switch control. If it is desired to have the lights change color in sequence to give the appearance of colors chasing or movement from one end of the pool to the other, that could require the switches to be turned off and on manually in the desired sequence with the desired delay, which would be difficult to accomplish.
Lighting controllers for color-changing lighting often use a fourth wire (power, neutral, ground, control) to change color. Fourth wire control requires additional switching, for example control relays, and additional wiring.
Pool/Spa controllers have historically limited the number of features or pieces of equipment they control. The higher the number of circuits for equipment control, the higher the cost and the higher the selling price. Each piece or group of controlled electrical equipment typically requires its own line voltage relay. Thus, the number of circuits controlling line voltage relays became a key factor in cost and in competitive product comparison and differentiation. Feature circuits that can control valve actuators for water features, without using a line voltage relay circuit, allow the control of additional features without the cost or space required of line voltage relays. In many cases, the use of a product feature requires that a relay output circuit be wasted. It would be beneficial to have feature circuits that allow advanced functions without wasting these valuable relay outputs.
In addition, it would be useful to have a control system that can be used with various pool/spa lighting schemes and solutions. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,379,025 discloses a submersible lighting fixture with color wheel. U.S. Pat. No. 5,051,875 discloses an Underwater pool light. U.S. Pat. No. 6,241,361 discloses a Submersible light fixture. U.S. Pat. No. 6,174,067 discloses a Lighting system, apparatus and method. U.S. Pat. No. 6,002,216 discloses a Pool lighting system, illuminator, and method. And U.S. Pat. No. 5,842,771 discloses a Submersible light fixture. All of the above references, hereby incorporated by reference, could utilize a computerized control system.
A means of controlling various commercially available automated pool/spa lighting products would also be useful. For example, it would be useful to control the commercially available SAm® light, also known as the SPECTRUM AMERLITE™, which is an underwater light that changes color at the flip of a switch. SAm® features electronic circuitry that allows a user to control the color of the light emitted by its twin halogen quartz bulbs.
Delivering a nearly limitless spectrum of color, SAm® can bathe a pool in a custom color a user selects to suit the user's mood, or slowly roll through the entire spectrum in a luminous underwater display. And, for pools with more than one light, multiple SAm® lights synchronized with one another could be used to provide uniformly spectacular color from one end of the pool to the other. A means for integrating and/or automating the control of SAm® lights would be useful.
SPECTRUM AQUALITE™ (SAL®), a compact version of the SAm® light, is also commercially available. Further, commercial fiber optics pool/spa lighting solutions exist (such as the FIBERWORKS® products) that could also utilize an automated control system. Thus, a system that could be integrated with such commercially available products would be beneficial.
In addition, a lighting controller that can integrate the control of various other pool or spa related equipment, such as pumps, solar heaters, powered heaters, filters, etc. would also be useful.
Desired is a way to control colored lights and other pool/spa equipment in a simple, but entertaining manner.